Highlights of Peoria School District 150's preliminary investigation

Tuesday

Jan 14, 2014 at 9:19 PM

Below are highlights of Peoria School District 150's preliminary investigation of testing irregularities in standardized tests given to special education students at Charter Oak Primary School over the past three years.

The investigation involves analysis of testing data for 26 students who attended Charter Oak before entering fifth grade at Mark Bills Middle School, comparisons of testing data with comparable schools and interviews with Charter Oak staff:

■ Charter Oak students' scores on 2013 ISAT varied dramatically from Spring 2013 scores on MAP, or Measures for Academic Progress, an assessment that's considered a highly reliable predictor of achievement on ISAT. According to the report, it's the "data set that is perhaps most telling that there must have been some sort of systemic cheating for Charter Oak special education students."

■ Similar irregularities show up in comparisons of ISAT and MAP scores for sixth- and seventh-graders at Mark Bills who attended Charter Oak in third and fourth grades. For example, sixth-grade special education students at Mark Bills who attended Charter Oak averaged a 41.8 percentile drop in ISAT reading scores between fourth grade at Charter Oak and fifth grade at Mark Bills.

■ Comparisons to schools with similar demographics — Kellar and Northmoor primary schools — did not show the same drops in ISAT scores for special education students as they moved to their respective middle schools, Lindbergh and Rolling Acres. Neither did a review of testing data involving regular division students as they moved from Charter Oak to Mark Bills.

■ Case studies of ISAT scores for five individual Charter Oak students are "remarkable in light of their disabilities and current levels of academic functioning."

■ "Charter Oak staff violated ISAT testing protocol in providing inappropriate testing accommodations to special education students during the administration of the ISAT." Teachers directed students to correct answers in a variety of ways, going as far as to erase answers themselves.

■ "All staff members interviewed reported they did not receive any formal training on ISAT administration on a yearly basis."

■ Though all names are redacted from the report, references to staff training on administering ISATs — apparently referring to Charter Oak Principal John Wetterauer — suggest the person responsible for training told District 150 administrators two different stories about how staff were trained. District 150 administrators recovered a sign-in sheet with staff members' signatures and signed testing security forms from a Feb. 20 staff meeting labeled as ISAT training.

"It appears that staff signed the 'sign-in' sheet when executing the testing security form required by ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education); no formal training on test administration was provided."